Repetition
by Flaming Platinum
Summary: [Our War Game] It was an endless cycle. Defeat it once and you'll have to defeat it again. Doubt yourself once and you'll eventually doubt yourself again.


**I swear, I did not plan for this to turn out that long. And I apologize now for the somewhat awkward ending, for I kind of finished this at 11 yesterday and I have no idea how to fix it now... Anyways, I guess I better stop talking now and let you guys read the story.**

* * *

"We did it…" Taichi said tiredly as he slumped on the balcony, right next to Koushiro. Despite not being the one who did the physical fighting, he was stressed out, a lot. Dealing with that _thing _was no pushover, especially when it threatened to launch a nuclear missile.

"You guys had me worried there for a second," Koushiro responded, barely turning to face Taichi. "The clock almost ticked zero, and who knows what would've happened if it did. But I guess I shouldn't complain, right?"

Taichi nodded, "It was deleted, so there's no way for it to come back." He sighed. It was only for a couple of hours, but the fight felt like it took days. "Well, now I guess I can enjoy summer like a normal kid."

"Right. Anyways, I need to thank Gennai and the Digimon for their help."

"Sure." Taichi didn't bother to go with Koushiro. Agumon already knew how he felt, and he didn't have that much of a connection with Gennai.

_I guess that's the last of our adventures, huh. But I didn't think that would be our final battle. Shows how much has changed._

"Taichi! Emergency!"

He leaned on the balcony. Koushiro wasn't in trouble, there wasn't anything important. He probably just forgot where he placed something.

"Taichi!"

"You probably want me to come and see the Digimon again, don't you?" Taichi mumbled, tracing an invisible pattern along the railing. "I'm coming, but you don't have to make stuff up."

He leisurely made his way from the balcony to his dad's study. He didn't have to hurry if they just wanted to see him. After all, from the events that just happened, they would've expected that he'd relax and take it easy.

But Koushiro wasn't laughing or having a very intelligent conversation with Gennai. He was cowering in fear.

"Taichi…look…" He was almost in tears at this point. It seemed to take every ounce of Koushiro's strength to point at his laptop.

"What?" Taichi looked at the laptop. Instead of looking at the sprite of Gennai, there was a familiar figure. One that he didn't want to see at all.

"How? How could it…" He trailed off. That _thing _once again reappeared in front of them, this time in the boundaries of the Digital World instead of the NTT system.

"Koushiro… What happens when all the data in the Digital World is eaten up?" Taichi asked, a scared look crossing his face. With the knowledge that the Digital World is connected to the human world, there were so many possible outcomes Taichi could think of. But Koushiro knew the answer for sure, and it might not be as drastic as Taichi originally thought.

"We're going to have another war game…" he responded, still on the verge of breaking. "Only…worst."

Taichi froze. Another war game was not fun. The last one was basically hell, and another one on a higher level would be even worse.

"What… what might happen?" he found himself asking. Despite not wanting to fight without much rest after the last one, he had to know what was at stake for this one.

"Well, aside from the death of the entire Digital World –" Koushiro started to cry at this point " – our world would be affected once again, but more drastic. Not only would all of our electronics go haywire due to the Digital World supporting them…but a repeat of what just happened might happen…only more missiles. It knows what's wrong and it knows how much damage one can do…" He couldn't speak anymore. The tears made his words choke him, despite them being extremely important.

"Then we'll just have to beat it again…right?" Taichi asked. He got something resembling a nod in response.

Taichi rushed over to the laptop, expecting to type a message to taunt that thing. Instead, he was faced with Gennai and one unread message. He waited for Gennai to say something – anything – about the situation, since Koushiro, in the state that he's in, is of no help, but there was no reply.

Thinking that the email might contain Gennai's response, Taichi opened it, not bothering to inspect the address.

"Hello, hello, hello? But –" Taichi realized too late. The message was from that thing, not Gennai.

But the closing of the email didn't work at all, a virus – or at least what Taichi thought a virus was – already entered Koushiro's laptop, allowing a full-sized picture of that thing to appear, before it fading to black.

"Eh…?" Taichi bore a very confused face. They got messages from this thing before, and it has never caused a crash before. Why was this time different "Koushiro…we have a problem."

Koushiro, who was probably out of tears at this point, looked up. "Taichi…" he started, probably noticing the blank screen on his laptop, "what happened?"

"Um… I think your laptop has a virus," Taichi responded, cautiously eyeing his dad's computer for any messages that happened to come through.

"Oh… Eh?" Fully alert, and probably finish crying, Koushiro jumped from his position on the floor and made a run for his computer, almost knocking Taichi down in the process. He jabbed his finger on the power button, but no matter what he did, the screen still remained black.

"Taichi, what did you do?" Kouishiro asked, eyeing Taichi with a look that Taichi couldn't place.

"It was that thing! It sent us an email and then it just crashed!"

"What was the email address?"

"I didn't bother to check!"

Koushiro sighed, but then made his way for the old PC that was on the floor. "If I can just see what email address it sent it from, we can at least know what emails to open and which ones not to."

"I should probably contact everyone else, right?" Taichi asked, earning a nod from Koushiro.

-0-0-0-

"Sleeping! But his exams are over and we really need him!" Taichi yelled into the phone. He decided to call Jou first, mainly because he thought his luck would be better with him, but apparently they weren't.

He sighed as he listened to the response. "Jou used up a majority of his brain power for that exam and blah blah blah…" There might not be any school for Jou to go to with if this mess continues.

"Well, when he gets up, could you tell him that Taichi called him, and it was urgent?" He hung up afterwords, knowing he was wasting time engaging into more conversation with her.

He tried Sora next, who apparently wasn't home at the time.

_She must really hate my present then._

Yamato's place wasn't good either. He wasn't home at the moment – probably still coming back from wherever he got the computer from – and before he could ask to leave a message, his grandma hung up on him, again.

"Hikari?" Taichi asked. She was their last hope, with Mimi in America at the moment. "Could you come home, now?"

"I can't, she's opening the presents." There was a pause. "She's mad now."

"Well, that doesn't concern me! We're going to have another war game, you know!"

"But she really mad, Taichi. I better…"

"Hikari!" Taichi yelled, but there was no one on the other line.

_It's just me and Koushiro, I guess. And anyone else who wants to join…_

Taichi deftly made his way back to his dad's study, only to be met with a panicking Koushiro.

"What's wrong?"

"I got a report from Gennai… his little sacred land got deleted by that thing, and Primary Village is next!"

"Eh?" Taichi raced towards the old PC. That thing already made it that far in the time it took for Taichi to realize that no one was going to come to his aid, which meant that the Digital World would be destroyed in an hour, max.

"But what about our Digimon? Aren't they going to…" He couldn't finish the thought. It was a painful one, after all. He just went through so much to save Agumon from dying at that thing's hand, and now he was going to lose him? That wasn't a world Taichi wanted to live in.

"Gennai sent them to your PC, but they're in their eggs, which means we can't fight right away…"

Taichi threw his hands up in defeat. They couldn't win this battle, no matter how hard they tried.

"We're dead, aren't we?" Taichi asked, collapsing on the floor. Might as well call it quits at this point.

_Idiot! Did you call it quits when you were trying to save the world the first time! No, right, so why now?_

"Well, I'm thinking that maybe we can speed up the evolution process with our Digivices. But we'll need the others… any luck with that?"

"No… Wait!" Taichi jolted up. "Hand me the computer, Koushiro."

"What are you going to do, Taichi?" Koushiro asked, probably not trusting Taichi with a computer after allowing a virus to enter the laptop.

"Yamato and Takeru are probably still at wherever they got the computer from, right? Well, if we email them, then we could send their eggs to them and make them hatch them!"

Instead of responding, Koushiro decided to put Taichi's plan into action, emailing them at the address they had emailed him at.

"Taichi! Phone call!" his mother called as Koushiro awaited an answer to his email.

Taichi ran to grab the phone out of his mother's hand.

"Hello?"

"Jou!" Taichi exclaimed. At least now there was a tiny chance that they could win this war game. "We don't have much time, so listen up." He explained everything thing to Jou, starting from the first war game to the one happening now.

"You can count on me!" Jou stated, having a bit of a happy tune to it, despite the situation not being happy at all.

"Don't forget, Digivice!" But Jou didn't hear the reminder since he had already hung up.

_Man, what's with people hanging up on me?_

Taichi decided to keep the phone in the study instead of hanging it up on the base for when he had to call more people, which seemed like the case.

"Taichi… Primary Village is…" Koushiro stated, on the brink of tears once again.

Taichi frowned. They were getting owned by this thing, and they couldn't even fight back. It was almost as cheap as attacking during an evolution, which it had done in the first war game.

"Where is it heading next?" he asked, leaning over Koushiro's shoulder.

"It split up. Our best hope is to get the Digitamas to the next stage. It's the only chance we have for these Digimon."

Nodding, Taichi took out his Digivice, aiming it at the egg that Koushiro pointed as his. Kouhiro followed suit.

Faint beams of light shot out from their Digivices, warming the eggs a bit. After about five minutes, cracks were becoming visible on the exterior of the eggs. Taichi grinned at this. Koushiro was right; the Digivice can speed up the process of hatching a Digitama.

"Koushiro, can the Digivices be used to speed up the Digivolution process as well?" Taichi asked after seeing the baby forms of Agumon and Tentomon.

"It wouldn't hurt to try."

They repeated the previous process until they got the forms of Agumon and Tentomon.

_"Any way you can get the others to hatch, Koushiro-han?" _Tentomon asked in the form of an email.

_"They're not responding to out messages, Tentomon… I don't think anyone's –" _Taichi grabbed Koushrio's hand in attempt to stop him from typing more.

"Jou's coming. So don't say that. Plus Yamato and Takeru won't turn their back on us. They probably noticed that something was off. Or at least Gabumon and Patamon noticed."

"Right."

_"They should be coming soon. Just hang on." _Koushiro typed instead of the previous message.

_"We don't have anything to hang on to!" _Agumon typed in response. _"Taichi, do something! That thing's devouring our world chunk by chunk."_

Taichi froze. He had no idea about what to type in response. He didn't want to respond with that normal "We'll give it our best shot" because that wasn't true. There was so much at stake in this version, and he had zero idea if he was ready to take it.

He had screwed up in the first version, freezing the computer, which resulted in a heavily damaged WarGreymon. And if he hadn't caused the computer to freeze, then that thing would have been able to hack into any systems, which would've gotten rid of the trouble of stopping the clock.

"Need me?"

Taichi turned around to face the speaker. It was Jou, who was now going to be forever classified as a lifesaver.

"You got the Digivice, right?" Taichi asked as Koushiro typed in a status update.

"It's my personal good luck charm," Jou responded.

Taichi sighed in relief. Maybe they weren't doomed. If Yamato and Takeru ever got back to Taichi, they'd have one more person to help stop that thing.

_"Tell him to get Gomamon out of his Digitama!" _Tentomon pressured.

"Jou, they want you to hatch Gomamon for us," Koushiro stated. Jou sat on the other side of him, listening to the explanation of what to do with his Digivice.

Taichi took the time to call everyone once again to see if they were able to make it.

-0-0-0-

"What do you mean she won't let anyone leave yet? Hikari!"

"Taichi, I can't really come home now. She's still mad at me for talking to you all those times."

"But I told you to come home hours ago! Do you not care for the future of our worlds?"

"It involves both?" There was a bit of a pause. "She still won't let me go… sorry Taichi. And tell Tailmon that too, okay?" She hung up.

Taichi sighed. Hikari was probably needed in this war game, and she was being held hostage by a bratty kid who was too selfish to let Hikari go and save the world.

He tried Yamato's and Takeru's place next, but their grandma said that they were still out.

_Probably still at that place where they got the internet._

Making a mental note to remind Koushiro to email their Digitamas to them, Taichi dialed Sora's number.

"Still out?" he asked, extremely annoyed at this point. It was just a hairclip, not some ugly thing. Why get mad over something like that? Besides, Taichi never stated that he didn't like her hat; he just thought that she should rotate between her styles. Maybe wear the clip on one day and the hat on the other.

"She said something about apologizing to you… hello?"

Taichi just wanted to dance right then and there. Sora wasn't mad at him anymore, and…

_And we're in the middle of a war game, idiot._

He kind of forgot about that last part.

"Taichi, everything alright?" Jou asked, looking directly at Taichi instead of his newly evolved Gomamon.

'Sora's coming!" he yelled excitedly, pumping his fist in the air. It didn't matter if they were in the middle of a war game – for it just got way easier.

"What about Yamato and Takeru?" Koushiro asked. He looked back to the screen and typed something in. "Oh, Tentomon wants to know if she has her Digivice."

Taichi froze. Sora was already on her way when he had called, so there was no way to tell her to bring her Digivice.

"We're just going to have to hope," he responded.

_"We don't have much time to hope!" _Agumon responded via the computer. _"A decent portion of the Digital World is gone!"_

"Hate to break it to you, Taichi, but Agumon is right," Koushiro said, earning a nod from Jou in agreement.

"There just isn't enough time for us to waste," Jou said.

"You're right." Taichi sighed. With the rate this thing was going at, the time it would take for everyone to arrive and hatch their Digitamas, there won't be a Digital World to save, and they'd be pressured once again to beat the clock. "But, Koushiro, do you know how to forward Digitamas?"

That was their tiny ray of hope. If they could just get Yamato and Takeru to hatch their Digitamas and get them to at least their rookie stage, then they wouldn't need Sora or Hikari. Taichi and Yamato could just merge WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon to create _that_ Digimon – the one that stopped the clock.

"I should, why?"

"Send Yamato's and Takeru's Digitama's to them. Trust me; I know what I'm doing."

"How would that help, Taichi? I thought they were at their grandma's place," Jou stated.

"It's been a half an hour since I last called them, and they still aren't home. Which means they must have noticed something went wrong, therefore they're probably still at that place. So if we forward the Digitamas, then they can fight back."

"He has a point," Koushiro stated before turning back to the computer screen, probably doing what Taichi had asked him to.

"And after that, we fight," Taichi declared, feeling once again like a leader. There wasn't any more doubt leaking through him; he can win and he will. The odds were in his favor this time, having the addition of both Jou and Sora to the team.

-0-0-0-

That was, until everything fell apart.

Yamato and Takeru received the eggs just fine, even evolved them to the ultimate stage before joining the fight. But it was Jou and Sora who were the problems.

"What do you mean you have to go home?" Taichi exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air once again. They managed to corner that thing at this point, and while they weren't sure if they were winning, they were definitely holding up its process of absorbing data.

"It's dinner time, Taichi," Jou tried to explain, but was failing to do so due to Taichi's persistance. "My mom wants me home before it gets cold."

"Can't you tell her you're staying over, like Koushiro did?" Taichi asked, still trying to find ways to get Jou to stay. While doing so, though, he had abandoned the fight – leaving that up to Yamato, Takeru, and Koushiro.

"Sorry, she wants the whole family over. Besides, don't you have Hikari?"

"She fell asleep and my mom won't let me wake her up."

"Well then, I guess you have to fight this without me." Jou got up to leave then, though, not before asking Koushiro to leave Ikkakumon in the gate that connects the Digital World and human internet plane.

_Am I really that bad of a leader?_

"Taichi!" Koushiro yelled. "Digivolve MetalGreymon to mega, now."

"R-right." Taichi aimed his Digivice at MetalGreymon, commanding it to evolve, just like the others did. There it joined AlturKabuterimon, MetalGarurumon, and HolyAngemon in the fight.

The thing took a considerable amount of damage already, but it figured out that it needed to absorb the data around it to heal and get stronger, making the battle feel like they were battling the million copies of it once again.

Taichi half-heartedly ordered a 'Dramon Killer' for WarGreymon to aid in the battle with that thing. But his mind was elsewhere, remembering what had happened with Sora about two hours before.

_But how did I mess up that time?_

Sora had – as her mother said – visited Taichi to apologize for getting mad over the hairclip, even decided to wear it to show how sorry she was.

"I'm sorry, I was a jerk and reacted the wrong way," she had said to him.

"It really wasn't that much of a deal," Taichi had covered up, acting like his normal self, which included making everything seem better than it was.

"Yes it was. I even sent an email to apologize. But doing so in person seemed better so –"

"What do you mean by 'sent an email to apologize'? I never received one," Taichi had stupidly replied.

That was the mistake. Sora's face had gone from apologetic to annoyed in a matter of seconds.

"You mean to tell me that you didn't bother to check you emails?" she had asked, enraged at this point.

"Well, I was busy."

"Busy with what?"

"With –" Though, Sora had left before Taichi could explain anything.

_That was where I messed up, wasn't it? But I was busy with preventing the second war game, so I didn't see it. Why couldn't she have just let me explain? It was reasonable explanation, wasn't it?_

"Taichi! Order an attack!" Koushiro yelled to Taichi, shaking him out of his thoughts.

"Gaia Force!" Taichi yelled. WarGreymon followed orders and shot the fireball, and fell back next to MetalGarurumon since it was too close to that thing.

The thing was becoming a big problem now. While there was only one at the moment, for it had joined together to regain more power, that one was still tricky. It moved at incredible speed, proving a problem for AlturKabuterimon and HolyAngemon, who were a combination of power and defense along with speed and stamina.

And its healing power was incredible too. Data was all it needed for even the most severe wounds dealt by the most powerful in the group to be erased from its systems. Considering the about it had stored, wounds and scratches in this thing would be hard to come by.

"It's absorbing too much data!" Yamato exclaimed through the window-box that connect him and Takeru to Taichi and Koushiro. "It'll be impossible to beat with these evolutions!"

"But there isn't much we can do!" Koushiro stated. "If we drag it here, who knows what it would do. It could launch more missiles via other government mandated facilities, aside from the Pentagon."

"But there has to be a place where it can't absorb any data or launch any deadly weapons!" Takeru yelled.

_Look at them, trying to figure out how to stop this thing while I'm doubting if I'm a good enough leader. _Taichi ordered WarGreymon to fire another 'Gaia Force' to stop that thing from getting any more data. _Am I really right to call myself a leader? Koushiro's the one who found out about this threat, and he's the one who found out how to stop it. WarGreymon can't even reach that stage without MetalGarurumon, which means I'm practically useless without Yamato. And Takeru, despite being the youngest, is trying to think of ways for us to defeat that thing without harming either worlds._

"Taichi, pay attention!" Yamato snapped at him after ordering MetalGarurumon to launch a 'Garuru Tomahawk' at that thing. "You almost got WarGreymon killed!"

"Sorry," Taichi meekly replied.

"Taichi, the fate of the Digital World rests on us. This isn't the time to be fooling around!" Yamato scolded. Taichi sheepishly rubbed his head in reply.

_See, I'm no good. I can't even –_

"_AlturKabuterimon_!"

The destruction of AlturKabuterimon was right in front of everyone.

That thing decided to use it as a power source, sucking the beetle dry of its data. The damage was clear. Bits of its shell were torn, allowing data bits to leak out, making way to that thing.

The crying noise of it was gruesome. It no long spoke the Japanese it had miraculously picked up when he started, making noises similar to animals.

_"Koushiro…han…couldn't save…Digital…" _The final words of AlturKabuterimon before it degenerated to Tentomon, knocked out cold.

There wasn't even a sobbing noise coming from Koushiro. Just the clatter of his Digivice and silent tears.

_I couldn't even protect my friend's Digimon… I'm really –_

But Tentomon wasn't dead. He wasn't fully absorbed by that thing, for whatever reason that thing had. If Taichi could just figure out how to transport Tentomon into the same place Ikkakumon was, then its live would be spared, and at least Koushiro wouldn't have to put up with the fact that his partner was dead. And Taichi wouldn't have to continuously hate himself for not making any motion to help.

"HolyAngemon, get Tentomon's body out of there!" Takeru commanded to his angelic Digimon.

"Garuru Tomahawk!" Yamato commanded his metallic wolf.

The missiles hit that thing before it could attack HolyAngemon, allowing the angelic Digimon to make its escape with Tentomon.

"Takeru, tell HolyAngemon to bring Tentomon close to me. I have an idea."

Takeru told his Digimon to do exactly what Taichi had asked him to do, while Yamato commanded MetalGarurumon to use a combination of 'Garuru Tomahawk' and 'Grace Cross Freezer' to prevent that sick monster from harming HolyAngemon.

Taichi borrowed the shaken Koushiro's Digivice and aimed it at the screen. While he'd admit that he has zero idea as to what he was doing, there was no harm in trying.

"Do you guys mind covering for me?" Taichi asked, getting only nods in response.

"HolyAngemon, Soul Banish!" Takeru yelled into the computer.

"Cocytus Breath, MetalGarurumon!" Yamato commanded. It was their way of saying yes.

_I owe them. _He focused his attention on trying to get Tentomon safe. The light of the Digivice was doing some good – some of the scars that had been on Tentomon before were now fading – but it wasn't doing what Taichi wanted it to do.

He looked over to Koushiro, who was a wreck at this point. His head was down and there was evidence that he had cried for a while. There wasn't any way he could be of help to Taichi.

_You couldn't prevent that. You could've, but was unable to because of yourself…_

Taichi tried to push those thoughts out of his mind, but it didn't work. They stuck and nestled themselves into his head, making him lose concentration on the situation.

_You're the leader, yet you couldn't prevent this war game from happening a second time. Do yo really think you deserve to call yourself a leader?_

"Taichi!"

He already was lost in the sea of negative thoughts. They took over, making a nest before that statement. There really wasn't a way to get him out now. They clouded his judgment and make Taichi unaware of fact that he made both Tentomon and WarGreymon vulnerable.

The thing, despite being held back a bit by HolyAngemon's and MetalGarurumon's attacks, took the time to split into two.

The copy launch itself towards WarGreymon, as if it knew it was a threat.

"MetalGarurumon, use your 'Garuru Tomahawk' to stop it!"

The attack did some damage to the copy, but not enough to stop it from making its way to WarGreymon.

_Stop it! _Taichi mentally yelled at himself. He finally came to his senses when the copy made its way towards the immobile WarGreymon. _You're not getting anywhere like this! _

"Gaia Force!" Taichi desperately yelled out in attempt to stop that thing from attacking WarGreymon.

While the attack did it the copy right in the middle, it didn't prevent it from latching onto WarGreymon.

The same fate that fell upon AlturKabuterimon now fell upon WarGreymon.

"Soul Banish!"

While the white ray of light did do its best to knock the copy away from both WarGreymon and Tentomon, it wasn't successful in preventing some of WarGreymon's data to be absorbed.

It wasn't enough to get it back to the rookie stage like it did to Tentomon, but it was enough for it to go back to its champion form, Greymon.

"Greymon!" Taichi yelled, looking at what was once WarGreymon.

But it wasn't his Greymon. It was a Greymon, all right, but not the one Taichi had traveled with, or even the one that he woke up with Hikari's whistle.

Sure, it was the same color and still a vaccine type, but it went haywire. Instead of attacking that thing it was supposed to, it decided to turn on its friends.

_"Taichi made me like this…"_

It aimed a 'Mega Flame' at the immobile Tentomon, despite trying to prevent it from getting hurt. It took some fast thinking on Takeru's side to save both Tentomon and Koushiro from demolition.

Taichi, on the other hand, was doing some thinking, but not battle wise. Once again, Digivices clattered to the ground, only this time, Taichi's was added, amplifying the sound more.

_Taichi made me like this…_He repeated the words of his corrupted Digimon over and over again in his head.

The screams of the other chosen tried to wake him up, but they fell on deaf ears. Nothing shook him out of this.

_Taichi made me like this… yeah, I did, didn't I? I'm terrible, aren't I?_

The edges of his lips moved up inch by inch to create a gruesome grin. Taichi himself had become corrupted, just like his own partner.

Taichi's eye sight was becoming hazy at this point, but he saw the evolution process. First the orange became white. The white went on a rampage for a bit before calming down and degenerating. Orange turned to blue, which turned into black, which rampaged more. It never degenerated.

_"Taichi… more, more…"_

The black went on an even bigger rampage, smashing everything in its path – whether it be friend or fiend.

Taichi, meanwhile, was becoming as useless as Koushiro, with the exception to the black. It fed off of his negative emotions, becoming stronger each passing moment.

_"More Taichi…I need more of it…"_

Yamato and Takeru – or at least what Taichi thought were Yamato and Takeru, for they were becoming blobs of yellow – still commanded what was there to fight the grey.

The angel and the metal took turns in keeping the black and the grey at bay, while also keeping watch on the red. The two yellows also took turns between giving out commands and talking to the two boys on the other side. They weren't successful.

_That's right, I'm not a good leader. I couldn't stop the group from falling apart. I couldn't prevent this from happening…_

_ "No good… too far in…" _Taichi wasn't sure as to who said that, but he agreed with them anyways.

_I'm in over my head with this junk. What kind of leader fails to protect those next to him? What kind of leader am I?_

"We can't defeat this thing without Taichi. Someone on that other line better wake up!"

_Wake…up…?_

_-0-0-0-_

Taichi had zero idea as to where he was, other than the fact that he wasn't in his house.

It was like a dream-invoked void, the one where your fears hid and taunted you from afar. The one where fear is automatically invoked and you can't shake it out right away. That bit takes time, though. But it seemed like time was infinite.

'_Shouldn't you call it quits?'_

_ 'That's what you were saying, right?'_

_ 'Why continue?'_

There were three red eyes within the void, each facing a different direction. Two were staring directly at each other, and the other looked directly at Taichi.

The eyes didn't faze Taichi though – there were other things scarier than monsters trying to look scary. Instead, he stood his ground, looking the one in front of him straight in the eye.

The other two stopped staring at each other and turned to face Taichi.

_'Call off the fight. Your Greymon already took damage.'_

_ 'There isn't anything for _you _to fight for.'_

Their voices and messages all reminded Taichi of something – himself. That was the version of him that was currently out there, the one that doubted everything about the situation.

Everything was controlled by his thoughts, and once he figured that out, only the pair of eyes that where staring at him remained.

The other two must have been there just to scare him. To make sure that he continue to doubt himself. Aside from that, they were nothing.

But the one he was facing, that was the real deal. That was the one that could do whatever it wanted with Taichi.

Taichi didn't trust his voice at this point. Instead, he mentally willed for the pair of eyes to show themselves.

The eyes growled before stepping into Taichi's viewpoint.

It was an all too familiar figure.

The flesh had been stripped off entirely of the creature, leaving only the bare bones visible. Its heart showed within its ribcage, allowing Taichi to notice its odd heartbeat.

There was this thing that had the same color eyes as the Digimon on its back, but it definitely wasn't a vital living part. It was also colored the same way as the heart – pinkish orange.

The Digimon had no lungs or a brain, or for that matter, any other internal organs aside from the heart. Just bones, a heart, and a fleshed colored thing going down its spinal cord.

It was a Digimon that Taichi knew all too well, and resented because of it.

SkullGreymon was the polar opposite of its counterpart, Greymon, who was Taichi's initial partner. It fought for the sake of fighting, and not for the sake of protecting its friends. It was only achieved when Taichi's emotions weren't positive when trying to get Greymon to ultimate.

"A bit too late for that, don't you think?"

Another figure emerged from the shadows, this time a lot less scary than the SkullGreymon next to him.

But still, the image sent shivers down Taichi's spine. It was one thing seeing SkullGreymon in a void like this, but it was another thing seeing himself with it.

"Worried? Don't be," Fake Taichi said. "This one is tamed. It'll only attack when I say so, and at the moment, I don't feel like fighting."

"Why not?" Taichi asked, finally trusting his voice. Despite the fake version of him being able to read his mind, it felt better to voice his thoughts. That way it wouldn't look like he didn't put up a fight.

"Because I'm using your Greymon for my BlackWarGreymon, silly. All that will leave you with is Agumon and Koromon, which my SkullGreymon won't even touch."

Taichi gritted his teeth. Fake Taichi doubted the abilities of him, despite being a part of the real one.

"Though, I have to thank you. I wouldn't have had the virus version of Greymon's evolution plus SkullGreymon if it wasn't for you doubting yourself. Really, you do it more than you think." A grin formed on Fake Taichi's face, alerting Taichi that something bad was going to happen.

But nothing happened. Fake Taichi still stood there, rubbing SkullGreymon's backside. He didn't seem to want a fight, like he said before. But Taichi still had his theories, and decided to get them answered.

"What's the meaning of this?" Taichi asked, stepping a bit closer to the duo in the process.

"I didn't think you'd ask that right now," Fake Taichi said, mockery lingering in his voice. "I thought you'd ask about Greymon's virus evolution line, or even how I can only get these Digimon when you doubt yourself." He shook his head in disbelief. "But I guess life just doesn't work like that."

"Just give me a straight answer!" Taichi yelled in his impatience. He still knew that there was a war game going on, and while he didn't know what the status was, it probably wasn't going well.

"The world doesn't work like that, Taichi. But we both do –" Fake Taichi only earned a snort from both SkullGreymon and Taichi " – wait, you'll get your turn," he said in order calm down the undead Digimon next to him, stating that he only acknowledged SkullGreymon's snort. "I guess I'll tell you then."

_About time, _Taichi thought.

"Can't you guys wait?" Fake Taichi asked, proving Taichi's theory that Fake Taichi could read minds. "Anyways, I'm here because you doubt yourself, Taichi. Every time you believe that you can't do something, I gain another ally. This round gave me BlackWarGreymon as well as a Botamon. One that I'm set on making it evolve into an Impmon."

"So you feed off emotions to make your team stronger? Could I really turn out like that?" Taichi asked, extremely unsure of Fake Taichi's motives.

"Just your negative emotions." Fake Taichi started to laugh. "If you wanted to. I'm basically you, only built up of the negative emotions instead of the positive ones. If you want, I could take over the battle for you. I could probably defeat Diablomon with this team."

"You _know _what that thing is?" Taichi asked, both amazed and frightened at Fake Taichi's knowledge of Digimon. He knew far more than Taichi, which was for sure, but he knew of the alternate evolutions to Digimon that Taichi had on him, along with what certain ones can evolve to. While Taichi had no idea as to what an Impmon would bring Fake Taichi, but it probably wasn't good.

"I wanted it ever since I saw it. But from what it's doing now, only a fool would want that monster on his team."

Taichi was curious as to what Fake Taichi meant. 'Only a fool would want that monster on his team' could also refer to SkullGreymon, which was standing next to Fake Taichi. And the SkullGreymon that Taichi controlled for a bit almost killed its teammates.

But that memory stuck. The one of that thing, Diablomon apparently, destroying AlturKabuterimon, while mentally shattering Koushiro.

"Oh, so you figured it out," Fake Taichi noted in surprise. "Diablomon doesn't have any type of mindset. While you're right about SkullGreymon being a monster that a fool might want, SkullGreymon has a way for it to be tamed. Not everyone knows it, but at least it can be tamed. Diablomon, on the other hand…" Fake Taichi stopped himself there after registering a couple of grunts from SkullGreymon.

_What's that thing doing? It shouldn't have a mind at all! _Taichi thought. From the way things were going, it seemed like SkullGreymon was able to tell Fake Taichi information on whatever he needed.

"It can tell when I'm giving too much away, apparently," Fake Taichi said. Taichi wasn't really surprised at this, for the guy proved himself to be less than human. Or at least, a human with ESP. "But, I'm not going to listen to it."

"Why not?" Taichi asked in both confusion and surprise. If that SkullGreymon can alert Fake Taichi when he's giving away too much, then why not listen to it?

"As a thanks for giving me all these partners," Fake Taichi replied. "And for the record, I don't have ESP. I can only read your mind since we're the same entity. You can do so too, but you just chose not to."

_Oh so now you tell me, _Taichi bitterly thought. _If you had told me sooner, I would've taken all the information you had and just left this place._

"Patience is a virtue," Fake Taichi told Taichi, acting like he was superior. "Though, I don't know why I need to continuously remind you of that." He only earned a snort from Taichi. "Do you want me to not tell you what I know about Diablomon?" Fake Taichi threatened. He smiled when he saw the high position of Taichi crumble. "Anyways, well, I should just skip over that part, since you already know it. It uses data to become stronger and likes slaughtering its opponents. Like SkullGreymon, it doesn't have a pure heart, but unlike SkullGreymon, it knows everything. Which is why it's wiping the floor with you guys! It already knows of your 'secret weapon', Omegamon, and it knows what kind of stunts you can pull with it." Fake Taichi grimaced. "It already knows what my Digimon can pull, so you can't use me as a surprise attack either…"

Taichi was genuinely surprised at what Fake Taichi said. He expected his clone to just tell him about Diablomon and that was that, but Fake Taichi also mentioned how Taichi couldn't use him against their match. Which meant that Fake Taichi wanted to help, despite being the negative side of Taichi.

"What stunt are you trying to pull?" Taichi asked, extremely confused at Fake Taichi's motives. From the beginning, Fake Taichi acted like he was the antagonist, someone that Taichi was going to have to deal with later on, but now he's trying to help? It was almost like trying to solve a math problem – too many variables to account for and only one real answer.

"Nothing."

Taichi froze. That wasn't what the evil alter ego of yourself was supposed to do. It would try to steer you wrong, not help you. Or at least that was what happened in the movies.

Of course, he could hide something from Taichi, which made him suspicious. Taking what Fake Taichi said about the whole mind share thingy, he attempted to read Fake Taichi's mind. But every thought was pure; nothing lurked in the shadows.

"I don't get it… You're made of my negative emotions, yet there isn't a negative thought in your mind. It's all pure and full of… of ways to try and help me. I just don't understand it…"

"Because you don't understand yourself," Fake Taichi answered. "While yes, I'm made up of your negative emotions, I'm also a part of you. And Taichi, you're this extremely rare case. Even in doubt, you still protect your friends; you still help everyone even when you're not sure of yourself." He sighed. "I just can't ignore that part of you, even if I am assembling a team of powerful Digimon."

"Oh…" Taichi responded, still not getting it. It was an extremely confusing topic to introduce to him, and his brain was already full with ideas as to how to save Tentomon to how to stop Diablomon.

Fake Taichi looked behind himself and then shook his head. "I'm really such an idiot." He turned to face Taichi, shaking his head once again. "I've kept you here too long. While BlackWarGreymon was able to hold of Diablomon, it really isn't enough. It isn't as strong as your WarGreymon, Taichi."

"But how do I get out?" Taichi asked, still confused by the logic of the world. The mind share was somewhat expected, despite being a bit bizarre. Everything else was confusing.

This is the kind of world you 'wake up' in occasionally, trying to shake your fears away once you fall asleep. But Taichi knew he wasn't sleeping, for there had to be someone in charge of commanding that BlackWarGreymon, despite it acting on its own for a majority for the battle. And Fake Taichi was here with him, so there had to be someone else taking control of Taichi.

"Just will yourself out." Fake Taichi shrugged. "This is your conscious, you figure it out."

"What do you mean by –" But the thought wasn't finished. As Taichi was about to counter Fake Taichi's suggestion, Fake Taichi faded away, along with that SkullGreymon he had on him.

_Man, can't these people just give me simple answers?_

There really wasn't enough time to continue to think about everything that just happened, especially after knowing what's currently going on with the battle.

But still, the question as to why Fake Taichi chose now to confront Taichi instead of after the battle lingered in Taichi's mind.

_He knew of everything; from the fact that the battle is still going on to the fact that I'm needed. Why then? If he knows I'm needed, and if he wants to help, then why lock me in here now?_

But that question quickly left as soon as he saw color return to the void.

_-0-0-0-_

"Someone on that other end better wake up or we're dead," Yamato bitterly said over the computer screen.

Taichi didn't bother to reply to Yamato's statement. His actions were enough to prove that he was 'awake', in a sense.

There really wasn't anything he could do about Koushiro though. Despite showing signs of running out of tears, he still didn't bother to move.

Tentomon, on the other hand, was awake and was strong enough to avoid getting his data stripped from him again, but not enough to evolve and fight back. But that last part may have something to do with the fact that Koushiro wasn't bothering to pay attention to what was going on.

Still, the part about figuring out how to save Tentomon was no longer needed, which was a huge relief for Taichi. That part strained his mind a lot, causing him to think a lot less clearly then he was capable of.

But the current problem, aside from dealing with Diablomon, was to get rid of that BlackWarGreymon that was replacing his WarGreymon. While degenerating it might solve the problem, Taichi was afraid that it might not go at all like he had planned and cause it to only degenerate down to MetalGreymon virus instead of Agumon.

_But didn't that Fake Taichi say that he used my Digimon to get his out? So maybe I just need to degenerate Agumon. It wouldn't hurt to try._

Ignoring another bitter statement from Yamato, Taichi commanded BlackWarGreymon to degenerate. Despite every other part of his brain telling him that it wasn't his Digimon, one part thought that it was going to obey him, especially since it was technically his Digimon, only just a different version.

Surprising all three of the Chosen Children, BlackWarGreymon did degenerate upon Taichi's command. Without him having to say another word, it evolved to WarGreymon, the pure version of the former Digimon.

"I'm back!" Taichi even put up a little v for victory to show that he was perfectly fine.

But still, despite the fact that Taichi was back and wasn't pulling any stunts, there still was the threat of Diablomon. And even though Taichi had some knowledge about that data sucking Digimon, it wasn't enough.

While there wasn't a clock to beat, there was still pressure. The area where they were fighting – which resembled nothing from their travels – was the only area that DIablomon hasn't absorbed yet. And once it absorbs it, then there's trouble.

"It knows of Omegamon," Taichi told Yamato, "but we didn't show it everything. I bet we can still have a surprise attack."

Yamato nodded, not bothering to ask Taichi about how he knew this stuff, which relieved Taichi. It was going to be hard explaining everything that happened in that little void.

They followed the same steps they did last time; aimed their Digivices at the screen, wishing for peace, and hoping for only the best.

Light shone from the two Digivices, allowing some kind of gateway for the two to cross. The last thing they heard was some encouraging words from Takeru, which set them off in a somewhat happy mood.

There wasn't much time to look at the scenery – or note the lack of it – which allowed the two to get straight to business. They both held up their Digivices to their respective Digimon partners.

Once the light hit their DIgimon, the two kids' wishes and desires to protect those near them flooded their Digimon, causing them to shine with the light from their Digivices.

Then the miracle happened once again. Both WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon fused together once again, allowing Taichi and Yamato to bask in the strong light of Omegamon, the one that would save the Digital World.

Diablomon only chuckled, its entire body moving up and down in the process. While Omegamon something to be afraid of, Fake Taichi was completely right when he said that it knew all about Omegamon. Still, it didn't hurt to try.

It moved like a spider, taunting Omegamon into following it. Omegamon did follow, chasing it towards the end of the road.

Needless to say, Taichi and Yamato followed, and warned Omegamon when he was about to fall off, much to the disappointment of Diablomon.

But to make up for it, Diablomon started to suck up the remaining data, only to be stopped by two shots, one from each head, from Omegamon.

There wasn't any taunting, and there wasn't any kind of rejoicing. Just attack after attack; blow after blow.

It finally took a painful stabbing from a sword shaped nothing like a sword and a blast from both of the heads for Diablomon to disintegrate.

"It's… finally over…" Taichi stating, nearly collapsing on top of Yamato. Taichi had no idea if that was the end of Diablomon, or even the end of their troubles. They had thought last time was the last time, but they were proven wrong by this event, and there was no way of knowing for sure.

All he received in return was a wakeup slap from Yamato, who was warning him to never do that again, with that referring to collapsing on him.

"Thanks, I needed that," Taichi replied, which was extremely true. He had gone through a lot in the course of a day, from defeating that thing once to a whole lot of personal troubles.

_Oh wait my personal affairs… damnit._

To tell the truth, Taichi had completely forgotten about his problems with Sora during the whole confrontation with Fake Taichi, since the matter was so trivial in comparison to figuring out how to get out and to save his group. But now, with absolutely nothing getting in the way with his personal affairs (aside from aiding Koushiro), it seemed like a prominent problem to address now. Only it'll have to wait a bit, for it's almost dinnertime.

-0-0-0-

His mom wasn't completely happy with the thought that he was going away from family again. First it was starring intensely at the computer screen, something that Taichi doesn't do often, and now it was claiming that he won't be home for a couple of hours.

"But mom, Koushiro's still shaken up about everything and I really need to apologize to Sora," Taichi fired back. It really wasn't like him to get all riled up with his mother, but this time called for it. While he could see why his mother was so concerned – with what happened last summer, there probably was a thin line of what Taichi could and couldn't do – but he had to make everything right.

She found it hard to bring up a better reason. Most of her logic and reasoning was used before, when the argument was still fresh. But now it seemed like she didn't have anything left to say.

Taichi took this as her being disappointed in herself for not thinking about the others, and used it as his opportunity to escape.

There was a lot of bag checking on the way to Koushiro's house, mainly to make sure that Mochimon got enough oxygen.

Part of Taichi's 'brilliant' plan was to bring Tentomon over to Koushiro, so that at least Koushiro knows that he's alive. But that backfired with the fact that Tentomon happened to degenerate once he passed through the boundaries. While it isn't that much of a setback, Taichi was worried that it could make Koushiro think that Diablomon did more damage to the ladybug then it actually did.

"Now let's hope that he likes the gift…" Taichi mumbled to himself as he rang Koushiro's door bell.

His stepmon answered, informing him that Koushiro wasn't in the mood to talk. Ignoring that information, Taichi determinedly walked towards Koushiro's room, despite his stepmom saying that it was best to leave him be.

"Koushiro?" Taichi asked as he knocked on the door. After waiting for a response, he just opened the door, which revealed a depressed Koushiro staring mindlessly at the ceiling.

Taichi, for once, had zero idea as to how to handle the situation and decided to let Mochimon handle everything.

Of course, he couldn't evolve to show Koushiro that he was completely alright since there wasn't any real danger, but he did his best with hoping around. Taichi had to stifle a giggle as Mochimon jumped on top of Koushiro's stomach, waving those tiny paws in his face.

It took forever for Koushiro to finally register what was going on, and when he did, he started questioning it, asking Mochimon all types of questions he probably didn't understand.

"That's out Koushiro," Taichi said to no one really as he realized that he was there. _Now it's time for Sora._

-0-0-0-

Sora was probably the hardest person Taichi had to apologize too.

It was an apology for yet another stupid fight, this time regarding not receiving the email she had sent to him.

It was hard enough with the fact that Sora had her mother respond with 'She's not home' every time he called or even tried to enter the house, and even harder with the fact that he couldn't just bypass the adult like he did with Koushiro's stepmon.

"Well, could you tell her that I wanted to apologize for being a jerk?" Taichi asked. Despite the jerk being Sora in both situations, there had to be something for him to admit to for Sora to finally open up.

"So that's what this is about," Sora's mother replied, sounding extremely confused. "I don't want to go against what my daughter has said, but…" She let Taichi go in without much of a fight.

Taichi had to wait a bit for Sora to finally open the door. And when she did so, she greeted him with a scowl.

Sora did have to ask Taichi what he wanted for him to give the most heart wrenched speech he had ever given a person in his entire life. He started with the whole Diablomon incident – the one that shut down the phone lines – and ended with the fact that they got so wrapped up in another that Taichi couldn't check his personal emails.

However, Sora looked like she wasn't really buying the second explanation. It took a lot more of Taichi's apologizing to do that.

"That's what really happened?" she asked, her tone going back to the apologetic tone it had when she was apologizing to Taichi yesterday.

"Yup," Taichi replied, happy that she finally got the full picture of everything. Of course, Sora getting the full picture meant that she felt even worst about being that big of a jerk to Taichi, as she expressed through her actions.

There really wasn't much for Taichi to do but be glad that it was finally over. Glad for no more personal affairs.


End file.
